National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has some news on the January jobs report — bear in mind that this jobs report encompasses a time frame before President Trump took office — and that January report has been revised. Downwards. Dramatically. By over half a million jobs.
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Yes, the Biden economy was as bad as we thought. Maybe worse.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says the January jobs report had “the biggest downward revision [in jobs] since 2009.”
“The Biden jobs market was way worse than markets thought … There’s a lot of cleaning up to do.” pic.twitter.com/05Bl63fS5x
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 7, 2025
Talking to Bloomberg Surveillance, Mr. Hassett says:
Let’s say the big headline for me, is something you guys haven’t talked about yet, but I encourage you to, is that we’ve got this thing going on where the professionals at the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) keep revising down the data. And, so the headline for me when I’m looking at this is the biggest downward revision, you know the benchmark goes through last March, the biggest downward revision since 2009. And we’re still sifting through the numbers. Uh, but, it’s really, really big. It could be as much as, if you go a little bit beyond the month, the last month, it could be as much as a million jobs fewer than we thought after this benchmark revision. And so the thing is, is why is it that we keep seeing positive jobs numbers and then when we look back a year later it’s way worse than we thought. And I say, so what we learn with all these downward revisions, is that the Biden economy, the Biden jobs market, was way worse than markets thought. And that’s sort of consistent with the rest of our views, their policies were unwise, and there’s a lot of cleaning up to do. I think if you look at the ISM (Institute for Supply Management report) that just came out, that people, market participants believe that President Trump is going to be able to turn things around and with these big downward revisions we can see that there’s actually a lot of work to do.
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That last remark is probably an understatement.
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, wasted no time releasing a statement.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 7, 2025
The press release states:
Today’s jobs report reveals the Biden economy was far worse than anyone thought, and underscores the necessity of President Trump’s pro-growth policies. During his first weeks in office, President Trump declared a national energy emergency to Make America Energy Dominant Again, pledged to cut ten regulations for every new regulatory action, and outlined a plan to deliver the largest tax cut in history for hardworking Americans. President Trump is delivering on his promise to restore our broken economy, revive small business optimism, create jobs, and ignite a new Golden Age for America.
In all fairness, President Trump has not yet been in office long enough to have a huge impact on the jobs market; these things don’t happen overnight. The American economy is like a super-tanker; it can’t turn on a dime. But pro-growth policies, as we learned in the Reagan administration, generally result in more jobs.
See Related: Biden Slides Into Series of Unhinged Rants During Detroit Remarks on Jobs
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October Jobs Report Shows Weakest Job Growth Since 2020, Raises More Concerns About ‘Bidenomics’
One X poster revealed a chart from the job report showing that the jobs market was revised downward every single month in 2024. That’s a calamity. That’s bad for American workers. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Bidenomics.
Every single month in 2024 just got revised down in today’s jobs report—by an average of -626k. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the BLS business employment dynamics data and the Philly Fed’s early benchmark suggest even bigger downward revisions coming in the next annual update.… pic.twitter.com/WCcaSzq5xR
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) February 7, 2025
Yes, the Biden administration’s economic policies were bad. The very term “Bidenomics” should be pronounced with a marked contempt for that administration’s callous disregard for American workers. With every new revelation, we see more and more clearly just how bad the Biden economy was.
This should start turning around now; while Kevin Hassett points out correctly that there is a lot of work to be done, the Trump administration has one advantage: When you’re flat on your back, the only way you can look is up. President Trump is in that position; almost any act he takes on the economy will be an improvement over the feckless and destructive policies of the Biden administration.
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